Ravaged By The Beast

The Beast of Burden Summer 100 Ultra Marathon



The day started off innocently enough.  Baba and the Cannibal were happy to snag a picnic table in the shade right next to where we had parked our vehicles.

As it turned out, the shade by our picnic table was the last we would see for the day.

It is wide open along the canal. There are no overhanging trees to duck under or paths that lead you through the cool woods for awhile.  You are at the suns August mercy.

 Blisters, sun poisoning, dehydration, you name it, we got it.

But one of the nice things about an ultra is the social aspect.  You meet people from many walks of life.

At mile three we met Ali.

His philosophy on running was, "There is joy in movement".

His daily workout is to walk three miles, jog three miles and then run three miles.  By the time he has warmed up with the walk and the jog, he can't wait to run.  The joy of movement.



I wish we could have talked with more people along the way but unfortunately misery came pretty early at this one.


Still, when you're running a local race you can always count on your friends to convey those special messages to you, like Richard Clark did to Bob, when we ran into him at Gasport -  "Clyde says to tell you, you suck!"  What a great motivator that was.



Yes, we were ravaged by the beast on Saturday. 


Some days you get the beast and other days the beast gets you.


It had it's way with us on this one but redemption is just a run away, or as the Hashers would say, "On On".